Pakistan's New Prime Minister

With the election of the new Prime Minister Makhdoom Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, Pakistan who was under a military rule till now, will soon move into a new era of Democracy.

Makhdoom Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, a loyalist of Bhutto, has been elected the 25th Prime Minister of Pakistan. He received 264 votes against 42 to the pro-Musharraf PML Q's Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi.

Born on the 9th June 1952, Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani belongs to one of the most influential political families of Pakistan. Anti-establishment politics and leadership is almost seen as something as a birth right for him.

The Gillani family is one of the most prominent political families in Pakistan. They were once one of the most important landowners and spiritual leaders in the south of the province. The prominence of the family only led to them vying for political power.

Gillani’s grandfather and other family members were active participants in the All India Muslim league and were signatories of the 1940 Pakistan resolution. This was the declaration that eventually led to partition. His father, Alamdar Hussain Gillani also served as a provincial minister in the 1950s.

Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani officially joined politics in 1978, when he became a member of the Muslim League's central leadership. This was soon after he had completed his MA in journalism from the University of Punjab.

His first term as a public servant was as a nominee of General Zia-ul-Haq. In 1983, he was elected as the chairman of the Multan Union Council and two years later he was elected to the federal parliament and was made the Minister of Housing and Railways. It was during this stint that certain circumstances arose which led to his leaving the League. While serving as a minister he had a fall out with the then Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Junejo, which eventually led to him being replaced as minister and sidelined from the party.

He was also elected as the chairman of the District Council of Multan. In 1988 elections, he defeated the then Punjab chief minister Nawaz Sharif on PPP ticket. In 1990, again on a PPP ticket, he was elected as a MNA after defeating Makhdoom Hamid Raza Gilani, a former federal minister. In 1993, he defeated Malik Sikander Hayat Bosan and later became Speaker of the National Assembly. He served as the speaker of the Pakistan National Assembly between 1993- 1996.

He had also contested the election in 1997 on a PPP ticket; however, he had lost the election and did not even win a single seat. He could not contest elections in 2002. In 2008 he defeated PML-Q’s Sikander Hayat Bosan.

In 1995, Mr Gillani issued instructions for the release of parliamentarians detained by his own PPP government. When the interior ministry refused to oblige, he had the matter brought on record - a quite unprecedented action.

The regime tried to coerce him into joining many of his Pakistan People's Party (PPP) colleagues in switching sides.

But Gillani refused to do a deal with Musharraf and his loyalty is much admired within his party.
He was sent to jail in 2001 and he served five years following a conviction over illegal government appointments. After being sentenced by the Musharraf regime in 2001, he told reporters that the charges were “concocted and were fabricated to pressurise him to leave the PPP… Since I am unable to oblige them, they decided to convict me so that I could be disqualified and an example set for other political leaders who may learn to behave as good boys.” Reportedly, his stance and defiance won him many admirers, even among the government. He was finally released on 7th October 2006 from Adiala Jail.

At first, Gillani was not a part of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). But, after he was sent to jail he had decided to join PPP. In his book Chah-e-Yusuf ki Sada (Reflections from Yusuf’s Well), which he had written in jail, he said, “I was furious, and helpless at the same time, I knew I could not continue… and then I made up my mind.”

During that time, General Zia was still in power and the PPP faced an uncertain future.
According to a report in BBC, Gillani said that he had gone to Karachi to meet Benazir Bhutto, Zulfiqar Bhutto’s daughter, then very much in the political wilderness. Gillani said that he had presented his offer to immediately join the PPP to her. “Ms Bhutto said to me, ‘There is nothing I can offer you, why have you come?’” Gillani then said that his reply was what sealed his relationship with the PPP and the Bhuttos. “I said to her, there are three types of people in this world. “Lovers of honour, of wisdom and of wealth. I am of the first type, and that is all I want.” Soon afterward, General Zia dismissed Mr Junejo’s government. Gillani then had already joined the PPP, months before the general’s death bought an end to its political exile.

Many believe that it is Gillani’s loyalty and his disdain for politicking within the party that has earned him the nomination for prime minister. Moreover, many also believe that he would gladly step aside if Benazir Bhutto’s widower Asif Zardari becomes a MP and therefore would be eligible to become prime minister.

"[Mr Gillani] was perhaps the only man among the top leadership who did not badger Zardari for this or any other position," says one PPP insider (as per the BBC report). "This along with the fact of his proven loyalty has earned him the nod. "They know that this more or less guarantees he will abide by all future party decisions over changes in government,” said the insider to BBC.